In the autumn of 1963 ,at the Frankfurt Auto Show, Porsche introduced the 901′ a 2.0 liter coupe that impressed both press and public with a 130HP. It took another year before the car went into production and it made it’s motorsport debut at the Monte Carlo Rally in January 1965. Peter Falk, at that time test engineer and Herbert Linge entered the race in a car with only slight differences to a series production car : bucket seats, 160HP engine and a smaller transmission ratio. They did well, placing fifth.
July 1966, introduction of the Porsche 911S with a 160HP engine. Just by classical tuning like larger valves and higher compression, they managed to reach this increase in power. This series became suite succesfull in racing, with some important European championship victories as a result. The Porsche 911 was the first car to win the Monte Carlo 3 times in a row. In 1967 Ferdinand Piëch designed the 911R, which can be seen as the actual predecessor of the 911RS. Using synthetic material made sure the car loosed weight, a strict minimum of equipment and plexiglass windows. The car had a weight of just over 800 kg and equipped with the powerfull engine of the Carrera 6. Huschke von Hanstein wanted the car to homologate for the GT class, so 500 cars had to be produced. Sales decided that this extreme car would be no succes on the market, so only 23 were made, making it a real rarity nowadays.
The 911 engine continued its evolution, from the 2.0 up to the 2.2 and 2.4 and even a limited series of 911S 2.5.
During the race season however, it became obvious that the car wouldn’t be able to fullfill its race expectations and that’s the real beginning of the history of the 911RS.July 25 1972, a heavily modified Porsche 911 enters the prototype class at the 1000km of the Austria Ring, however to mislead competitors it was not an official Porsche Team, but rather an entry of the independent Strähle tam with a 10th place as a result. May 16 1972 the decision was made to have 500 cars ordered in the light weight form. Just as in 1967 with the 911R, there was objection about the possibility to make the public warm for this car, however this time the sales and marketing department couldn’t convince the management not to proceed with the project.Porsche RS debuted at the Paris Motor Show October 5th 1972. At the opening of the Paris Motor Show, dealers had orders for 51 cars, not enough as qualifying in Group 4 (special grand touring) required 500 cars to be sold. The RS was so enthusiastically received in Paris that before the month was out, the entire run of 500 cars was sold out. Another 500 were built and sold so the car qualified for Group 3 (production grand touring) According to homologation papers, this goal was achieved in July 1973.Total production of RS and variants was 1580, the first ten cars were kept by the fatiry as prototypes. First car off the line was orange, used by Dr. ernst Fuhrmann and later on transformed into a ONS car used by races.
Quite a lot of history and information , just to introduce the event organised to celebrate the 40th birthday of this exceptional cars. Uwe Kurzenberger and his wife Gaby didnt want this occasion without a special party, so they started the organisation of the birthday party. The event attracted over 50 cars, among them the 2 original East Africa racers ever produced. No better place could be found to start the event as in Zuffenhausen, at the entrance of the museum. Later on the attendees drove to the hotel in Sinnsheim, near the technical museum. The complete weekend they drove the cars in the Baden-Würtenberg region, including near the Schloß Solitude and in Ludwigsburgs. The 911 RS really deserved a birthday party like this and we can only hope someone will grab the occasion to organise a even bigger birthday party in 10 years.
